When PETA’s One More Chance the Musical was announced last year, my first reaction was “WHY?”
Now, hear me out—I don’t want to be a hater, but I think most of us who loved the Star Cinema movie when it first came out have grown older and wiser, and realized that a) Popoy, the male MC, was a toxic sadboi, and; b) his HFN with Basha wasn’t rightfully earned. Which is my way of saying I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of seeing it interpreted as a musical, even as a casual fan of Ben&Ben’s music.
But this IS still a PETA production, and from experience, I rarely leave a PETA show disappointed, so I decided to watch it at least once. Thankfully, I was able to get tickets now after being unable to snag some during their first run.
One More Chance tells the story of Popoy and Basha, an engineer and architect, respectively, who have been together for five years. They’re getting married soon, and everything they’re doing career-wise is geared toward that milestone. Plus their dream house, which Basha designed.
As the show opens, we see cracks in their relationship, owing mainly to Popoy disregarding Basha’s feelings. She is burnt out and unhappy in the firm they’re both working at, and wants to leave it all behind to venture into something else entirely—a t-shirt design business that Popoy thinks is simply a distraction from their end goal. Things come to a head when seemingly minor inconveniences pile up and aggravate Basha’s feelings of being unheard, and she decides to end their relationship.
Completely lost without her, a stubborn Popoy tries to win Basha’s heart back, eventually hurting not only her but also his relationship with their shared circle of friends. Will Popoy and Basha ever get their Happy Ever After? And when they do, will they be back in each other’s arms, or in someone else’s?
This review contains spoilers.
What I liked
Number one on my list of HELL YES THANKS FOR DOING THAT, SHOW is the script being tweaked to address certain things that weren’t explicitly tackled in the movie, driving home the point that Popoy’s behavior isn’t romantic but toxic. And these call outs don’t just come at the 11th hour too. They’re sprinkled throughout the scenes and delivered by the couple’s trusty Thursday Barkada, often in savage fashion, just like True Friends do.
That said, I commend the cast’s dynamic and competent handling of the ensemble scenes. Sometimes it becomes chaotic on stage with a lot of dialogue being thrown around, but they still always manage to get the point across. My favorite Thursday Barkada member would have to be Anj (played by the charming Miah Canton) because she’s consistently the voice of reason and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. (Movie Anj, played by Bea Saw, was also my favorite, js. Wala talaga tayong pasensiya sa mga sadboi kahit noong hindi pa uso ang term na sadboi.)
Speaking of tweaks, THANK YOU, SHOW, for making Popoy admit his grave mistake to Tricia. The fact that he really, actually cheated on her by sleeping with Basha wasn’t explicitly stated in the movie, and that’s always rubbed me the wrong way. Although we still don’t know much abour Tricia in this adaptation, I believe she deserved to learn the whole truth from her boyfriend, and not just some vague “I feel like you’re still in love with her so I’m letting you go” shit.
In addition to that, HELL YES that breakup scene between Tricia and Popoy was satisfying as hell. Again, Tricia had every right to be mad, and Movie Breakup didn’t cut it for me. Musical Breakup did. I wish she’d slapped him at least once, though, but the way Sheena Belarmino sang out her lines in Kathang-Isip felt tactile enough for me to consider them actual physical slaps. As in PAK, PAK, PAK. Dazerb.
Obvious naman, hindi ako fan ni Popoy, BUT I may have become a Sam Concepcion fan? Not to say that his portrayal made me forgive Popoy’s actions, but he played the character so well that I felt like doing an Anj and call him out on his BS from the balcony. Also, he was so John Lloyd-core? I can’t explain it because they don’t look alike, but I’d blink sometimes because he resembled Movie Popoy so much, it was ANNOYING. In a good way, trust. Also, we already know Sam can sing. But there were moments of vulnerability in the show where I appreciated the way he sung his lines. Give ko sa ‘yo ‘yan, Sam. Galing.
Shoutout to the other members of the cast who were such a delight to watch: Carla Guevara-Laforteza as Nanay Edith, Johnnie Moran as Chinno, Gio Gahol as JP, Jay Gonzaga as Mark, and of course, PRINCESS THE DOG (kahit isang beses lang siyang lumabas sa stage, UwU)!
What I think needs improvement
Adaptations are always tricky, no matter what kind of form an existing piece of work transforms into. Sometimes the challenge lies in making something current. Sometimes it’s how to enrich the material, or how to trim things down. Movies rely on masterful camerawork and editing to make scenes make sense and continuously build up to the story’s climax. Live theatre has none of that, and stage direction is crucial because despite everything going on on stage, you still want your audience to focus on the right things.
This was my issue with One More Chance’s stage elements. I liked the use of the scaffolding (for the purposes of this review, let’s just call it that because I can’t find the right word), and I appreciated the precision with which it was moved around and held in place, but they moved them around so much that it distracted me from the scenes. At some point I was watching how the stage hands were securing them together (I was stressed and wanted to know it was safe for everyone involved, okay?) and forgot there was a scene going on center stage. Just me? No?
I’d have loved a more graceful, seamless way of transitioning from one scene to another just so they flow nicely and leave us with little to no lulls, because the lulls affected the overall energy of the show. Like there were real emotional highs and wonderfully performed numbers, and then the energy nosedives when the lights go out and the set elements are moved. Sayang yung build up.
Giving the Thursday Barkada richer backstories is something I appreciated as well, because who doesn’t want character development, right? The downside of that, however, was that it stretched the show out to three hours, and I. felt. it. In fact, even before we reached the end of the first act, I could already feel the fatigue. Sure, it could be because the overarching narrative of the show is heavy, but I very rarely wish for an act to be over so I can take a break…and I found myself wishing for an earlier intermission this time around. Also, why did Tricia not get a richer backstory? You expanded the barkada’s universe but didn’t care enough to give Tricia something similar? In this adaptation, she still is The Rebound Girl and nothing else, and that makes me sad.
While we’re in the topic of tweaks, I fully liked how the material lightly touched on SOGIE, self love, and mental health. HOWEVER, I do wonder why, after all those tweaks, no one clocked the “shampoo” line as something that could potentially bring the laughs. It’s 2024, I think we all know we should be more careful handling suicide/suicide ideation as a theme. The song that was used in that scene was really lovely, and I think it was a good fit for the message being conveyed, but we could have gone without that one moment of laughter. Let the scene be somber. We can laugh over something else later.
Also, now that I remember it…I got confused over that opening scene with the beach? I had to rewatch the movie after coming home from the theatre to check that my memory wasn’t failing me—there was no beach scene in the movie. Where’d that come from?
One More Chance the Musical runs until October 27 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. For tickets, go to Ticketworld, or consult PETA’s Instagram page for showbuyer details.
